Exploitable Weaknesses by Brian Keller (red queen free ebook txt) 📗

Houses and meet us at the new House in Miller’s Flats, near the Brickmaker’s kilns. We’ll buy the kids some new clothes and feed them two meals tomorrow. All they need to do is walk around in the rain for a couple hours. I want them to blot out the wagon tracks, and the footprints that these people make as they shuffle from the wagons to the Houses.” Rukle laughed, “You think me telling them to come out into the rain is going to make me ‘the good guy’?” Cooper smiled, “You will be when you show up tomorrow with a pouch of coin to buy clothes and food.” Rukle clapped a hand on his shoulder, “You may just be right. What about the wagons?” Cooper shrugged, “I haven’t decided. Maybe we’ll just drive to a stable in the Trade Quarter. Unhitch the horses, put them up, and leave.” Rukle asked, “And if the stable owner or one of the hands wakes up?” Cooper shrugged, “Then we sell them for whatever they’ll pay for them.”

It was slow going, through the deep mud. Often the wagons would slip into existing ruts and get bogged down. On those occasions, they’d abandon the attempts to obscure the tracks, and merely focus on keeping the wagons rolling by pushing them or on the wheels themselves. Ruts that were that well-established were already filled with water. The muddy water made any new tracks almost invisible. After pushing Birt’s wagon from a particularly deep rut, Loryn looked behind them and Cooper heard her telling Spen, “I don’t think even Utsef could track us through that slurry. Look how it fills in behind us.” Cooper followed her gaze and had to agree. A yell from the first wagon drew his attention. The horses were tiring and the wagon needed a push.

It took longer than expected and he knew that the freed prisoners were cold, wet and utterly miserable. After slogging through mud, repeatedly sinking in well past their ankles while pushing wagons, he and his colleagues were more than a little relieved when they stopped along the south edge of Miller’s Flats. It was time consuming, and it was the only time during their trek when he’d wished for more light, but they managed to sift through which passengers weren’t Guild members and lead them to the first house. Rukle supervised while the Dreg’s kids played a spirited game of Tag where the wagon had dropped them off. It might have been the knowledge that they’d have fresh, dry clothes tomorrow, or that they’d been guaranteed two meals, but the kids didn’t seem to mind the rain. Rukle had to quiet them down a few times. Too much noise might wake the nearby residents and bring them to their windows. While the first group was moving, the Guild prisoners were divided between the two wagons; eight in one and nine in the other. At least half of them couldn’t move without assistance. Three or four of them weren’t expected to last the night. Spen stayed with Naro at the first House, but before he left the wagon Cooper watched Spen look over some of them and heard him comment, “The excitement will either kill them, or save them. At least now they have something to live for, perhaps that’ll be enough.”

The horses still seemed to protest, but they were able to pull the lighter wagons without assistance. Cooper and the rest walked behind, just in case. Rukle and his rag tag band of Dreg’s kids followed along.

At the next House those prisoners that could, helped move the others. Once everyone was inside, Cooper gave some quick instructions to Loryn, Gaff and Balat, “Start a fire and get everyone undressed, dry, and into warm clothes. Everyone eats, at least a little hot broth, even if they’d rather sleep, feed them. We’ll be back as soon as we’ve disposed of the horses and wagons.” He turned to Loryn, “Rukle will drop off the Dreg’s kids then come back here. As soon as everyone has settled in, you two go and collect Spen and get back to camp. Guard shifts start as soon as you get back. We’ll be dividing our time between here and the camp for the next few days at least.” Loryn took a deep breath and let it out slow, “By morning, City Watch will have word about what we’ve done.” Cooper smiled, “They’ll know someone has released prisoners from the quarry. If we’ve done this right, they won’t know who, or where they are now. That’s why we need to keep these people tucked away for a few days, at least. This is far from resolved, and it’ll get more difficult before it gets easier.” Loryn tightened her jaw and pulled her shoulders back slightly, then gave him a firm nod, “I suppose if it was easy, then it wouldn’t be up to Assassins to do it, right?” Cooper chuckled as he turned to leave, “Something like that, I suppose.”

They took the horses and wagons to one of the larger drover businesses near the Trade Quarter boardwalk, then Cooper deliberately woke the owner. After an exchange of only a few words, some coin changed hands and the animals and wagons were left behind as they returned to Miller’s Flats.

As they walked from the stable, Birt asked, “Not that I mind the coin, but why bother selling them at all? Why didn’t we just leave them and slip away?” Cooper smiled, “Human nature. The horses and wagons weren’t stolen, but they just as well had been. If we’d just given them away, the owner would’ve been tempted to boast about his windfall. But with some coin invested, he’ll not boast to anyone about the horses and wagons he’d purchased for less than half value from some kids in the small hours of the morning. As it stands now, he’ll not want to bring attention to it any more than we